HADOPI Blamed for ISP Rate Hikes in France

The goal of The High Authority for the Protection of works on the Internet (HADOPI) is to stop piracy, but French internet users are learning that the only thing HADOPI has effectively stopped is low rates for an internet connection. “Free”, one of France’s largest telecom company admitted that ISP rate hikes were “inevitable”.

If you are reading this news story and reside in France right now, be prepared to pay more for the connection to view these articles. That’s according to Free (Google Translation), one of the largest ISPs operating in France. The three strikes law is now being blamed for the increase in rates.

One package was cited as an example. Before the new web laws took effect, users paid â‚¬29.99 (About $40.06 US). The rates went up by â‚¬5.99 to â‚¬35.98 (about $48.06 US) after HADOPI became law.

A central point in all of this was explored back in August last year when it was discovered that HADOPI would cost nearly â‚¬50 million or nearly $64 Million per year (authors note: to replicate the ‘â‚¬’ on a US keyboard, hold “alt” and type 0128 on the numpad with num lock turned on). Later on, we found out that such a figure was actually conservative and costs could be way higher. ISPs and the government were locked in a fierce debate over who should pay for it. While, by law, the government said it would pay for it, some are saying that the French government is doing what it can to delay payments, thereby forcing the ISPs to foot the bill in the end.

More recently, we learned that record labels were upset that the government wasn’t warning all 50,000 users each day and that the government is trying to get all the way up to warn up to 10,000 users per day. HADOPI defended these actions by arguing that HADOPI isn’t set to auto-pilot. Currently, some suggest that HADOPI is only currently warning 2,000 users per day.

What’s ridiculous is the fact that, now, those who aren’t pirating material are also being punished for these laws as well. Meanwhile, pirates are migrating to more secure sources, so the only people HADOPI is really punishing are non-pirates and pirates who don’t know what they are doing. I would submit that this is just another sign of just how broken HADOPI really is.

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